Ugliest Sweater Party
by signelchan
Summary: It may be Maki's birthday but the last thing she wants or needs in her life is a party; there are exactly two people in her life who don't see things that way and insist on giving her only the best kind of birthday party someone like her could ever hate to have.


**A/N: happy birthday Maki, I'm sorry that I decided to save _this_ for your birthday instead of posting it when I finished it.**

It felt like Maki had just fallen asleep when she was woken up by the sound of a phone ringing right beside her; knowing that she'd shut her own phone off and put it across the room in hopes of sleeping she figured that the disruption would be taken care of by someone else and that she could continue trying to rest. There was no such luck, as it kept ringing, call after call coming through unanswered and so she resigned herself to having to actually wake up, lazily opening her eyes and reaching for the phone in between her pillow and the one next to it. As she reached, she took note of the fact that she was alone in the bed, and because of how poorly she'd been sleeping lately it made sense that she'd been left alone when that decision was made.

Sure, Kaito could be respectful to let her try to sleep, but apparently taking his phone with him so that it didn't wake her up was too much to ask. She managed to wriggle the phone off of the charger and bring it into her line of sight, the screen lighting up with Kaede's name and number, and she asked herself if it was really worth answering the call. Her decision came with two reasons, she did need to because according to the clock at the top of the screen it was barely after six in the morning, and the greeting she was going to receive was undoubtedly going to have something to do with it being February second, which was Maki's own birthday. No sooner had she pressed to accept the call did she hear the sound of shrill screaming on the other side, and those two reasons flew right out the window. "Could you maybe please tone that down?" she asked, trying to mask how tired she was by keeping her voice low. "I'd like to be able to hear even after I'm done talking to you."

"Sorry, she literally just started crying again right before you answered and—yeah, go ahead and try that, maybe it'll get her to calm down!" The second half was clearly not aimed at Maki, but she'd still listened to it anyway, the feeling of listening to her friend having to act like the mother she was oddly pride-inducing. "Okay, sorry about _that_ too, I'm sure your day was going better before you had to listen to me yelling over those screams. Even if you're using someone else's phone to talk and all that, since you don't keep yours in bed with you."

"My day? Kaede, it's still early morning."

"It's still…oh, oh my god I'm so, so sorry! I didn't realize that…" The screaming in the background had lessened significantly, yet Kaede was still speaking loudly, which didn't help matters at all in Maki's mind. "I've been up for what feels like hours dealing with what has to be the world's fussiest baby and I guess I just…forgot to check the time before I called you, because I wanted to talk to you so bad! I didn't wake you up, did I?"

Maki could have chosen to lie to get things over with, but she was feeling brutally honest and knew that her friend would understand what she was getting at if she just came out and said it. "No, not really. You know how it is, sleep's not really a thing you get at this point, and I'm just going to accept it." Thanks to the phone that she had pressed against her ear, Maki wasn't going to try moving from the position she was in, and even if she had wanted to the chances were high that she was stuck there on her side anyway, blankets tossed away and a long pillow wedged in between her legs that was supposed to have been making things more comfortable for her. "Glad to know that it really isn't going to get better, though."

"There are some good nights, but for the most part it's a whole lot of no sleep at all, yeah. It sucks, but it makes when you do get to sleep so much nicer." Now Kaede's voice was lowering, as if it had finally clicked in her mind that yelling to her sleep-deprived friend wasn't the best idea. "Of course, it makes it a lot easier when you can get some sleep because you've handed the baby off to someone else for a bit, which you…can't exactly do, and I totally get that me even bringing that up might be a sore subject."

Laying the phone against her face so that she could start worming that pillow out from where it kept getting put to no real effect, Maki replied, "It's whatever, honestly. If it's not her doing yoga in there, it's her pushing hard enough to get me to need to get up, and the second I _can_ pass her off to someone else, I'm doing it." With the pillow in her grasp, she lifted her leg as much as she comfortably could before removing it, tossing it onto the floor behind her with zero regard to what she may have knocked over. "I just can't believe that I let him do this to me, and he gets out of everything so easily."

"He's just getting out of this part easily, once you have a child to take care of he's going to be doing so much work to help. That's what happened here, you know. I mean—" Whatever it was Kaede was saying was promptly ended by the phone sliding off of Maki's face, bouncing once on the pillow before rolling off onto the floor. She was sure that her friend was going to give her something inspirational to keep in mind, but there was no way that she was getting that phone up off the floor on her own.

Taking a deep sigh, Maki slowly rolled onto her back, immediately regretting her decision and continuing until she was on her other side, her eyes peering down at the phone that still had the call active, Kaede certainly confused at what had just happened. "I dropped the damn phone, hang up and I'll call you on mine!" she shouted, hoping that her voice would pick up, and judging by how the call soon ended it seemed that it did. "Oh god damn it, at least that happened with Kaede and not anyone else who wouldn't get it. But now I have to…get my phone to call her back, don't I?"

Her eyes lifted to where her phone was sitting on a table across the bedroom, sitting next to a desk calendar that had the day marked with a birthday cake, as well as several other dates later in the month circled. Leaving her phone on that table was a new thing, but it worked because getting it meant that she got to look at the calendar and see how close she was to being done with her pregnancy that had already felt like it'd lasted a lifetime. All she needed to do was get up, get off the bed, and go over to her phone, remind herself that she was nearly at the end, and then call Kaede back and inevitably be reminded about how long she'd been suffering through this.

She had to take it one step at a time, and that first meant getting up without caving and calling for Kaito to come help her, a strange idea to process given how fiercely independent she'd always been. That sense of independence had been changed the moment she'd become noticeably pregnant, at first because he'd insisted on helping her with everything but then because she couldn't do most of it on her own anymore. Getting herself out of bed was one thing that she often needed help with, especially in the middle of the night when she didn't have the time to slowly get herself up, but she was determined to not resign herself to calling out for help. She thought through her motions carefully, getting her legs over the edge of the bed as she raised her upper half, finding herself sitting within a couple minutes of deciding she needed to get up in the first place.

"Wait, shit, where's the phone?" she asked herself, trying to lean forward to look for where it had fallen so she didn't end up stepping on it, but her stomach hit her legs long before she could really see anything. She groaned, sitting back up only to recline backwards, throwing an arm behind her to keep herself propped up and not falling flat on her back, while her other hand reached for what had just made contact with her legs. As her fingers ran across the bare skin of the underside of her stomach, she could feel both the marks and scars on her skin as well as forceful movements beneath it, all reminders of the little life so desperately begging to be set free.

Well, it was either that or the child had already inherited her father's intensity for doing just about anything, and that was not a thought that Maki exactly wanted to have right then. "Just a couple more weeks, that's all everyone asks," she said, drumming her fingers right where she'd been feeling the movements. "It'd be better for all of us that way, especially you and not so much me."

She stayed in that position until the baby stopped thrashing around as much, and at that point she carefully got off of the bed, not feeling the phone underfoot and being thankful for that. Once she was standing, she attempted to adjust the pajamas she'd gone to sleep in, trying to make herself look as decent as she could for having just woken up, but the shirt she was wearing (one of Kaito's, covered in stars and as dark as the night sky) was barely able to be pulled down to cover most of her stomach and she wasn't about to stretch or rip a shirt that wasn't her own. "And here I was thinking I'd be flat and skinny for life," she remarked as she adjusted the shirt as much as she could, getting it untwisted and not quite so bunched up under her chest, which had more than doubled, if not tripled in size in the past half year. Between that and the stomach nearly as large as a ripe watermelon, she was thankful that she hadn't really put on weight anywhere else, even though her now completely exaggerated proportions had made her life rather difficult.

When she got over to the table where her phone was, she immediately grabbed it and started turning it on, looking at the calendar while she waited for it to come alive. It was obviously the day marked with the birthday cake, signifying another year she'd been living, but that wasn't what was important to be looking at. Even though the expected "due date" for the baby wasn't until the following month, not a single person (Maki included) figured that she'd wait that long to be born, and so circled were all of the days that their friends had placed bets for the birth to take place. That was a daunting thing to even think about, but she was somewhat hoping that expectations would be subverted and she'd be coming away from the whole thing with her friends learning never to bet on human life again, especially since Kaito had money down on three different days, not realizing that he was going to lose no matter what until after the bets had been taken.

Her phone's screen lit up with a picture of her and Kaito from their wedding day, which felt like so long ago but was barely two years before, and that was when she knew she could get back to her call with Kaede. Dialing that number was done completely through muscle memory, having called her so many times over the past few months just to talk through her fears and worries as she approached becoming a mother, but this call was going to be different. It was just to finish whatever Kaede had tried starting, and then it would be over. It was picked up after the first ring, a cheerful, "Hey, you remember to call me back!" given as her greeting. "That took longer than I thought it would. Little one giving you problems, or did you forget you were supposed to call back?"

"Please, you know I'd never forget something like that." Except Maki could forget, and she had several times over the past few weeks. "And I wouldn't call it 'problems', she was kicking and I wanted to savor the moment, as…weird as that feels for me to say. Is feeling that sort of thing something I'm going to miss?"

"I mean, I missed it for the first few days, but you'll forget about that when you have that same sort of squirming in your arms." Even though they weren't face-to-face, Maki was sure Kaede had some sort of thoughtful look in her eyes as she said that. "There's no reason to be thinking about that now, though! You've still got time to spend having your whole heart inside of you, rather than half of it out in the real world."

"Uh, thanks for wording it like that, I guess." Unsure of where to go now that she was having her conversation she'd accidentally cut short before, and knowing that choosing to pace around the room was not an option, Maki decided she'd head back over to the bed and sit on its edge, and hopefully not drop a second phone on the floor. "Anyway, enough about all that, you probably had a second reason to call me this morning, didn't you?"

Kaede gave a soft laugh, before replying with, "Not exactly. I had a second reason for calling Kaito's phone, in case he was the one who answered it instead of you, but I didn't think it would be so early and that obviously you'd be the one answering it since you're the one not sleeping." It was clear she was lying, but with trying to get back on the bed carefully Maki didn't have the focus to call attention to that. "But I know you're trying to get something out of me, so happy birthday, Maki. I'll say it again when I see you later."

With a loud breath Maki got herself up on the bed and sitting exactly as she wanted, which meant she could reply to Kaede and not worry about the distraction. "Thanks for that. Maybe when you get here you'll come clean about whatever you wanted to talk to Kaito about." Cue sputtering on the other side of the phone, which Maki couldn't help but crack a smile at. "I know that you're planning something for later, he's told me that much."

"What do you mean, he's told you? It was supposed to be a surprise."

"I threatened him. Something along the lines of 'you tell me if there's anything being planned for my birthday, or you risk having to celebrate two birthdays that day for the rest of your life'. Worked perfectly." Maki's smile grew a tiny bit more at the memory, having Kaito scared enough to fall right for her trap, even though she was fairly certain a little shock wouldn't cause that to happen. "But he didn't tell me what you guys are coming up with, and I swear if it involves too many people or anything too exhausting I'm never going to forgive you for it."

"It's nothing too crazy, I promise!" Kaede sounded genuine, but Maki wasn't completely convinced, not even when she followed her statement up with, "The way I looked at it was if I would've been okay with doing it for my birthday last year, then it would be something that could be considered. Even though…I guess it's a little different, comparing me on my birthday to you today."

Honestly, Kaede's birthday the year before felt so long ago that it seemed as if it was in a completely separate lifetime, so Maki couldn't even mentally process how it would be different. "Well, as long as you aren't asking me to go for a hike, I bet it won't be too bad."

"Oh, yeah, no hikes! While that would be totally fun and good for all of us, I'm not lugging a baby and stroller out for a hike in this weather. Shuichi said it's really cold out and trying to snow, can you believe that?" If the plans didn't involve going outside and doing something physically draining, Maki didn't have any clue what it could be, which terrified her, but Kaede's genuine tone hadn't wavered and she seemed to be insistent on being honest. "We'll be over there, or at least Nori and I will, at some point later."

Habitually, Maki's nose scrunched at hearing at her friend's child was going to be in attendance. "Right, because you can't afford to get a babysitter for one day."

"Trust me, this isn't something that she can't be invited to. Now…go try to sleep some more or something, because you're going to want as much energy as you can get for what we've got planned!" Kaede ended the call with another birthday wish, and the moment the line went dead Maki set the phone on the bed next to her and fell backwards, laying on the bed for just long enough to feel somewhat comfortable, only to realize she had no hope of getting back up on her own, much like a turtle trapped by its own shell.

Her first thought was to try and call Kaito's phone, but she quickly remembered that would do her zero good seeing as his phone was somewhere on the floor still. Sounding panicked and calling his name would only make him think she was in more serious trouble there in the bedroom, but if she didn't make it sound urgent she wasn't sure when he'd ever make his way in to help her. It was a calculated risk, but Maki wasn't going to claim she was good at math or coming up with better ways to handle a situation when she was half-sunken into the bed, her shirt rolling up and her legs kicking off the side of the bed. She put on her most serious voice and let herself bellow Kaito's name, hoping the sound carried through doors and walls and found him wherever he was.

In under ten seconds he was bursting through the bedroom door, eyes wide and car keys in hand, only to see that the problem he'd been called to address was not that they needed to leave right then, but rather that his stomach-heavy wife had gotten herself stuck on her back. "Geez, Maki Roll, you scared me there," he said, catching his breath before helping her up with a shaky arm. It was caused by equal parts the fact that she was heavier than he was used to and that he wasn't quite as built as he had been in the past, but by the time she was up and able to get off the bed for herself once more he was looking more winded than he had when he'd entered. "I'm kinda jumpy about all this baby stuff, y'know? Don't wanna leave you alone longer than I've gotta, in case things go sour while I'm gone."

"And I thank you for that but…" she trailed off, sniffing the air that had wafted into the room upon Kaito's entrance. "…are you making breakfast for us?"

"It was gonna be breakfast in bed, until I realized that you'd probably like to sit elsewhere to eat, but yeah! Figured a good wife would enjoy a birthday breakfast from her husband." He flashed her a grin, before looking at where his phone should have been on the bed. "Uh, don't mean to change the subject, but where's my phone?"

"On the floor."

He was dumbstruck by her sudden response, as she picked up her own phone and started making her way out of the room, to see what it was he'd been cooking. "On the…okay, that makes complete sense, Maki Roll. Phones just do that." He knew exactly where to look, though, and once he saw that it had a call from Kaede as its most recent he knew what had happened without her explaining a thing. With that in hand, he decided to follow her out and start their morning off better than it already had been.

* * *

Naturally, due to the nature of how things had gone overnight, by the time she'd finished eating as much of the food Kaito had made for her as she wanted (which wasn't much, even though he'd done an excellent job in preparing things), all Maki wanted to do was curl up and try to get some sleep. She'd yawned loudly several times while eating, her eyes getting heavier by the minute, and the moment she felt herself doze off she called it a meal and got up from the table, aimlessly wandering around as she considered where trying to sleep would be most productive. "C'mon, you've gotta at least try to stay awake until I get everything cleaned up," Kaito told her, a statement that she completely ignored as she found herself trodding back towards the bedroom.

"You know where I'll be when you're done cleaning, you can join me then," she called to him, as she walked through the bedroom door and started coming up with a plan for how she'd try to get more sleep. That planning time was cut short with a swift kick inside of her, which made her immediately regret eating anything in the first place, and she was forced to instead set her sights on the bathroom, which was where Kaito found her once he had finished cleaning the kitchen.

"It's funny, you told me I knew where you'd be and you were right, even if you didn't think you would be," he said after announcing his presence with a knock on the wall behind her, as she knelt uncomfortably in front of the toilet, her head resting on her arms with her managing to have fallen into a shaky sleep there. He knocked again, hoping to wake her up with the sound, but when the repeat action didn't work he bent down behind her and tickled the back of her neck, which was exposed only because the long ponytail she put her hair into when she slept had fallen to the side. Slowly her head perked up, dazedly looking around for whatever was touching her, and when she saw Kaito's smile waiting for her she gave a low groan. "Yeah, I'm sorry that I made ya feel like this too, no need to growl at me."

"That wasn't a growl," she corrected, her voice not much more than a whisper, "and I've been waiting for you to get your ass in here to help me up. Did I need to trick you into thinking I've gone into labor a second time together to get you to hurry?"

He chuckled, this time needing to use both arms to get her back to her feet. "Trust me, the once was more than enough for today. Now are you ready to go in and try to get some actual sleep for a change? I'll even grab your pillow for ya, since you seem to have thrown it and I know you aren't picking it up."

"Yeah, this was the closest I've gotten to the floor since the last time your child decided to make me incapable of holding food. You know I'm not picking anything up that's down there because I _can't_." To illustrate her point, Maki tried her best to bend down, but the combination of being in the small bathroom as well as being as pregnant as she was made it hard for her to try reaching anything near her knees, much less the floor, and all Kaito could do was stifle laughter at the sight. She straightened herself out as best as she could after the display, scowling at him. "Next time you decide you want a kid, you can do the honor of carrying it, if you're going to act like that."

"Whoa there, you try seeing what you just did and not laugh at it a little!" He sounded like he was getting defensive, but after she pushed him forcefully out of the way and into the sink counter to leave the bathroom, he knew that he needed to apologize once again. "Look, I know you're tired and grumpy and I'm sorry for laughing at you, but it was funny, I swear! You would've laughed too!"

Freezing mere steps from the bed, Maki turned to look over her shoulder, her eyes narrowed in an intense glare. "I'm not speaking to you any more about this, if you're going to be rude about things," she snapped, before whipping her head back around and getting on her side of the bed, laying down as he came out of the bathroom and crossed the room to grab her discarded pillow, which she refused to take from him.

He was left watching her get herself situated laying down, her back turned towards him (knowing that whenever he laid down next to her, she'd roll over to keep ignoring him), and with what felt like no other choices he grabbed her upper leg and lifted it. "You're not even gonna sleep if you don't have this," he said to her, worming the long pillow in between her legs so that she could straddle it as needed. "Please, just…forgive me for laughing, will you?"

"I'll forgive you when you're dead." It wasn't that she didn't want to forgive him, but rather that she felt so humiliated by what she'd tried to do that she couldn't accept that he'd thought it was hilarious. She could clearly remember both of them laughing at Kaede over a similar situation, and how her friend had felt bad about it after, and she couldn't believe that Kaito would've done it to her even after that.

With the pillow as in place as he could get it, Kaito let go of Maki's leg and went over to his side of the bed, sitting down and moving as close to her as he could, a pleading look in his eyes as he reached out towards her still-exposed stomach. "Well I don't think that's gonna work, seein' as this little girl's gotta have both of us around as long as possible," he said, in time with laying the back of his hand on one of the long scars on her stomach, rubbing it up and down against it. "She's going to have the best life, and that'll all be because of having both of us in it!"

"Whatever you say." Maki gave a long yawn, her eyes fluttering closed only for them to shoot open when she felt a forceful movement on the other side of her stomach, where Kaito wasn't going to be able to feel it. "You're on the wrong side if you're trying to feel her. I think you're scaring her off right now, so take that as your cue to leave us alone and—"

"I'm not scaring her! She's just…shy about letting me feel her move, that's all!" Even though he knew he was on thin ice, Kaito was not going to give up anything until he'd made things right with Maki, and he felt like he needed to have their child's approval before he would smooth things over. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't going to get his wish, but the gentle touch of his hands, and the relatively few and far between kicks on the inside, made it easy enough for Maki to fall asleep there, getting real rest for the first time in days.

When she woke up, she could barely remember what day it was, let alone what time and what had been happening before she'd fallen asleep. Kaito was still sitting next to her, although he had changed clothes from earlier in the morning; now, instead of an old shirt covered in tiny spaceships, he was wearing a Christmas sweater that he'd worn for every single holiday picture for years straight. "Hey, how was your nap?" he asked, as she tried to figure out why he'd put on something so garish and unreasonable when it wasn't the right season for it. "You looked so peaceful that I couldn't bring myself to wake you up, but you seem to have woken up right on time."

"On time for what?" As she was getting herself up and ready to go through the routine of getting off of the bed again, Kaito was also moving around, heading over to their shared closet to pull something out. Maki watched him for a moment, before turning her attention to getting the pillow out from between her legs, to getting her legs over the edge of the bed, and to getting her feet flat on the floor without falling forwards or backwards. She was honestly thankful Kaito's attention was occupied elsewhere when she did get off the bed, because she wobbled and nearly stumbled backwards, and if he'd seen it he would have restarted the problems they'd been having before. Once her balance was steady enough she heaved a sigh, putting her hands on her hips and widening her stance so that her back wasn't doing all of the carrying, and she looked at her husband with impatient eyes. "Well? You haven't told me what I'm on time for."

His head perked up but he continued rummaging through the closet for a few more moments. "Close your eyes and I'll show ya, Maki Roll. Just have to use a bit of patience here with me." She gave a quick eyeroll before humoring him, closing her eyes and hoping that what came next wasn't anything more humiliating than what she'd done earlier that day.

When she felt coarse fabric hit her shoulder, rolling off her back, she cracked an eye to see Kaito doubled over in laughter, and since she hadn't done anything she couldn't get angry about him laughing at her. "I hope you're going to pick up whatever that was," she told him with a smile, "because we've already gone over that I can't."

"I'll pick it up, but you've gotta do something for me too." He coughed, collecting his stray laughs and putting them under lock, while she fully opened both eyes and raised her eyebrows at him, them becoming obscured by her messy bangs on her forehead. "You need to get dressed in everything except a shirt. Right now. It's, uh, kind of important."

"Except a…Kaito Momota, if you're asking me to wear some sort of novelty shirt I'm going to walk out that front door and never come back." There were some lines that needed to be drawn, and Maki was only half-joking about this one she'd just presented, knowing that the occasion that fell on the day was one that had far too many joke shirts that could be used for it. "I'm not putting up with that, if that's what you're planning."

"Oh, no way, it's nothing to do with a novelty shirt, you've just gotta believe me on that!" It was incredibly hard to do so when he was grinning from ear to ear about whatever was going on, but Maki wasn't going to pick fights forever. She knew that she did need to get dressed in something a bit more appropriate than her nightclothes, and she also knew that Kaito wouldn't just randomly tell her to only get half dressed. Yet, when she tried to look at whatever had been thrown at her, he begged her to not worry about it and to just go about getting dressed like he'd asked.

At that point, the only things she felt like wearing were skirts and pants that stretched completely, out of comfort and ease of getting them on and off, and because she remembered distinctly that Kaede had mentioned it was cold that day, she ruled a skirt out. If, for some reason, they were going out, she'd want to be warm, and so finding a clean, well-fitting pair of pants was the task. Thankfully, she had several pairs of them that she'd gotten the last time she'd gone shopping, and she was able to switch from the pair of pajama shorts she was wearing into proper pants with little struggle.

After situating her top half, as awkward as it was to do so without any idea of what shirt she was going to wear, she turned to face Kaito again, him holding both arms behind his back and trying his best not to laugh once more. "Okay, what's the deal here? If it's not some cheesy shirt, I've got no idea what you're going to ask me to wear."

"And that's exactly what I was hoping for. Here, this is for you." Pulling an arm from behind him, Kaito revealed that he was holding what looked like an ugly sweater to match his, and Maki's face immediately hardened into a scowl. "W-what's that look for? Don't you remember when we saw this and you said it was hideous?"

"By saying it was hideous, I thought I'd never have to see it again," she replied, turning up her nose at the cats-in-hats covered sweater, complete with furry letters declaring a _meowy Christmas_. "Why is that in our house, and why are you asking me to wear it?"

"I'll, uh, let Kaede explain it when we see her, but you've gotta put it on. Please, it's what we've got for you to wear today and…just, please, Maki Roll. It means a lot for you to do this." He was pleading with her, and she wasn't going to be able to actually tell him no. She did, however, need to find some sort of undershirt to wear underneath the sweater, assuming it would be just as scratchy on the inside as the part that had hit her shoulder had been. There was one right within an arm's reach, and once she had that on Kaito was right there with the sweater, pulling it over her head and working on getting her long ponytail out from underneath it while she got it the rest of the way on.

She was hoping that it wouldn't fit and that she'd be able to weasel her way out of wearing the monstrosity, but it became obvious that the sweater had been purchased with this exact event in mind, because it was quite roomy, even on her much larger body, and the thought that Kaito would willingly buy this for made her stiffen in anger. "How funny, this thing isn't tight at all, and neither of know anyone who would need something this big on a normal basis, since this is…" She lifted an arm to check to make sure her suspicion was correct, and seeing the way the sweater still curved inward on its side made her feel like she was on the right track. "Yeah, this is definitely a ladies' sweater."

Kaito forced a laugh, finishing playing with Maki's hair and stepping away from her before she potentially lashed out. "Seriously, just ask Kaede about it when you see her. Which, uh, should be as soon as we get out of here, she should be here by now. I'm gonna…go check on that, actually." He gave her a wink before running out of the room, making sure that he was far away from any sort of anger that may bubble over.

Looking down on the front of the sweater, Maki felt like she wanted to rip the whole thing off and leave the room with only the undershirt on, but that was going to be more effort than she wanted to put in at the moment. Figuring that she could just bear with the whole thing for a little while, she stepped into the bathroom to make sure she looked presentable enough overall, fixing her bangs and freshening up a bit before going out to the living room, where she was immediately inundated with yet another scent coming from the kitchen. This time, instead of the smell of breakfast foods, it was the smell of cake, and at the first hint of it in the air she found herself feeling awfully hungry.

"Whoa, aren't you going to at least say hello?" It was Kaede's voice asking the question, and it took Maki a full five seconds to realize that she'd completely focused on what she was smelling that she hadn't even noticed that her friend was there. "I get it, you want to see what's baking in _that_ oven but you've got to at least say hi to the person making it!"

Maki went to say something on the matter, but she was interrupted by a high-pitched babble that quickly turned into a scream, and whatever she was going to say was forgotten. "Ah, so she's here too," she remarked, finally looking at Kaede and seeing that she was focused on her child, who must have been laying in her lap or on the seat next to her. "And where's her father, I'd assume that he'd be here too, right?"

"He'll be here later, something came up with the case he's been working on and he needed to go take care of it." Kaede's eyes came up off of the child and found their focus on Maki's sweater, which made her smile to see. "Ooh, you really did get her to wear it, didn't you, Kaito? I told you, she'd look amazing in it!"

"And I told you I'd get her to wear it, didn't I?" His voice coming from the kitchen (which made sense if something was cooking in there, someone would need to be guarding it), Kaito sounded like he was proud of himself for what he'd done. "Now all we've gotta hope is that Shuichi remembers to keep his on and we'll all be dressed for the occasion! Unless anyone else who said they'd be here actually shows up, anyway."

"Who knows, we'll just have to see!" Now Kaede's eyes moved further up to meet Maki's, and it was there that she was greeted with a stern gaze that was barely lighter than her standard glare. "Aw, what's with the angry look? Aren't you excited for your birthday party?"

Maki's eyes went unfocused for a moment as she thought about the implications of that phrase, concerned about what kind of shenanigans her husband and friends had planned for her under the guise of a party. "Last time I checked, I wasn't a child, so no, not really," she replied, before grabbing at her sweater and tugging on it. "Besides, what kind of birthday party, in _February_, uses Christmas sweaters?"

"The kind of party where—hey, Maki, go find Kaito for a second, will you?" Kaede was clearly flustered about something, and all Maki could do was narrow her eyes at her, the attempt at getting her to go away failing. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you why, it's because they were so cheap after the holidays were over and we wanted to do something a bit different for you, that would be fun but not super involved. Make sense?"

"Something tells me that's not all there is to it, but sure, whatever, it makes sense." Right as Maki rolled her eyes Kaede's attention went back to the child she was sitting with, and soon enough there was a baby being held up between them, looking up at Maki with completely wide eyes. "Yes, that's Nori, I already knew she was going to be here, and I haven't forgotten what she looks like there's no need to show me her."

Having decided to hold her daughter up in front of her face, Kaede's changed expression was obscured from view, but the fact that she was grasping at straws became clear when she next spoke. "I just thought that maybe you'd like to see your unofficial niece, but I guess you're not interested and that's fine!" She pulled the girl back down, turning her around so that they were looking at each other, and the girl's face contorted now that she was looking at someone she was familiar with. "Maybe you can find something else to do then, since I'm clearly not good at coming up with anything!"

"…Right, what was that about me going to find Kaito?" Taking a single step away, Maki waited to see if Kaede would have anything else to say, and when she didn't she took that as the opportunity to leave, going into the kitchen to find the love of her life backed up against the counter, holding his arms out to keep her away. "Let me guess, she sent me in here because you've got something to show me, and you're not actually ready for it."

"Not ready? I've been ready to show you since I woke up this morning, but you're the one who's not been feeling up to anything except sleeping and being rude!" Even with his insistence he didn't move, which seemed to prove Maki's point, but as she was going to chide him for it he let out a yelp and backed further into the counter. "If you're gonna get mad at me for any of this, let me tell you right now that it was all Kaede's idea, I just went along with it 'cause I love you!"

"And that warrants you being on the counter? Get down, you're a grown ass man and can act like one." He wasn't really on the counter but he still stepped away, retaining his terrified look as she stood there, once again with her hands on her hips. "What in the world is going on here right now? Why are you both acting so weird about things? You're throwing me the stupidest party, sure, but I'm not going to be angry about it."

The terror seemed to melt away at once, and Kaito's face found its typical goofy grin. "That's a relief, thanks for letting me know that, Maki Roll. You were startin' to scare me with how you were handling everything and I was just thinking, after everything this morning, this was the last straw."

As much as she knew she should have been paying attention to him and what it was that he was saying, Maki's mind was on other things, as evidenced by her eyes drifting towards the oven. "No, but it can be if you tell me that cake's not going to be ready anytime soon. How long has it been in there for? It's got to be close to finished, it smells done."

"Just a few minutes, but you're not eating any of it until everyone else gets here. We can't get greedy and leave any other guests out." Her eyes snapped towards him, the deadly glare taking hold, and he flinched back. "T-that's not my request, that was all my sidekick! He asked Kaede to ask me to ask you to not have any of it before he gets here!"

"Do you _both_ want to die?"

"No, but…maybe there's somethin' else you'll wanna eat while we wait? I mean, this is a lunchtime party, Kaede made sure to get all sorts of things set up for us before you woke up for real today." Once again he was grinning, as her glare softened to transition back to staring longingly at the cake that was still baking. Over the next few minutes, as she was thankful she really couldn't get into the oven and snatch what was rightfully hers, Kaito explained the entire set-up of the birthday party, from how it had originally been planned to how almost everything had been set up that morning, with the help of the Saiharas. "So now you know every detail I know, how about that? Will you leave the cake alone?"

She pursed her lips together in thought, before letting her tongue slide out a bit to give the upper one a lick as visions of eating cake crossed her mind. "I'll consider it."

"Uh, Maki Roll? I know that look in your eyes…" Kaito glanced at Maki's hands, which were slowly inching towards the handle to the oven, and he leapt into action, grabbing her arms and holding them back as well as he could. "Could ya actually consider it, instead of just saying it to get me to let my guard down? You know if you try getting it, you're gonna get stuck bent over and that won't end well for anyone."

There was nothing quite as infuriating as Kaito reminding her what she couldn't do at the moment, even though she was well-aware of that fact herself, and she yanked her arms out of his grasp with much more force than he could handle. "Then get me something else to eat, rather than leaving me hopeless like this!" she snapped, before turning to leave the kitchen. Even though she hated leaving like she was, she was starting to get tired of standing around and finding somewhere to sit sounded like a good idea in her mind, especially if it meant that Kaito would be bringing things to her, wherever she ended up.

When she re-entered the living room, she saw Kaede looking right towards her, watching her every step for whatever reason, and she ignored it for as long as she could, but there was something about having eyes focused on her that made her uneasy. "Are you going to sit down with me and Nori?" she asked, a question that Maki didn't feel like answering with words, but rather the act of sitting on the other side of the couch from the mother and daughter pair. "Geez, okay, sorry for asking. What's wrong?"

"I want something to eat," Maki replied in the simplest way, hoping that the conversation would stop right there.

"Doesn't mean you should come in here looking so grumpy. Everything okay?" It was clear that Kaede wanted to know what was going on so that she could be a supportive friend, but Maki didn't know the first place to even start with everything that was wrong. While she was talking to the one person she was close with who would understand all of her problems, she didn't want to pile them all on her plate without any reason for it, so she merely shrugged. "I think I know what this is, you're really not having a great day, huh?"

"How'd you tell?" Letting the corners of her mouth deepen into a frown, Maki found herself resting one of her arms on top of her stomach, while she used her other hand to make sure her sweater was still pulled down completely. "Bet it has nothing to do at all with the fact that I'm waddling around like a penguin wearing a fucking Christmas sweater."

Kaede gave a small gasp, cuddling Nori closer to her chest at what she'd heard. "I mean, that's part of it, but not everything. Something else just seems off about you and I…I'm a little worried, honestly."

"I appreciate the fact that you care, but I'm fine. Absolutely fine. You go back to worrying about your child and not me, and we'll all be better off for it." Her words may have been harsh given the level of care Kaede was trying to show her, but Maki didn't want any part of it. She wanted food and she wanted to sit there in peace for a little while; she got neither when, what felt like minutes later, she heard the piercing shriek of a neglected child followed by a mother's quiet hushing, immediately coupled with a hand shaking Maki's arm.

"You may forget this," Kaede said, pulling her hand back once she had Maki's eyes on her, "but you've got a really expressive face when you don't keep it so stoic, and you're clearly in pain right now. Tell me what's going on, I promise I won't make a big deal out of it."

Maki closed her eyes and was just about to tell her friend to back off when she heard Kaito ask, "Hey, why's the baby crying?" His reappearance in the scene threw her entire focus off, and she hunched slightly forward, the arm that had been on top of her stomach now pressed against her chest. "Oh man, what did you do to her while I wasn't here, Kaede?"

"I didn't do anything! I just…I set Nori down to check on her and now she's acting weird and…" As Kaede trailed off, she was looking towards Kaito, who had come into the room with food exactly as Maki had demanded, and in the wake of the uncertain situation he was setting it aside to crouch down to get a better view of his wife's face. "Kaito, I don't know if this is what you want to hear, but I think she might be—"

"If you finish that sentence I'll kill you." Feeling her face relax and erase whatever signs of pain Kaede had seen, Maki's eyes reopened and she found herself nearly brushing noses with Kaito, who'd gotten rather close to her when he'd had the chance. "I'm about as fine as you can be when you've got a child using your insides as a springboard, on top of everything else happening right now." She sat back up, but her arm stayed tight across her chest. "I need to go change my shirt, thanks to someone deciding to let her child start screaming in the same room as me."

"—okay, false alarm on that one, she's still normal Maki." Kaede gritted her teeth and refrained from saying anything more on the topic of being blamed for letting her baby cry, but when Maki stood up and she moved her arm, showing both it and her sweater to have been dampened, she couldn't help but give a single chuckle. "Well, except for that happening to her, I guess. I'll try to make sure that doesn't happen again."

This was, hands down, the worst birthday that Maki could ever remember having, and she'd had some horrible ones in her youth when her birthday hadn't mattered to anyone but herself. She barely kept it together until she was in the bedroom, but by the time she'd stepped a single foot into the room there were tears rolling down her face, and when Kaito met her in there moments later she was choking sobs and trying her hardest not to get too overemotional as she removed the sweater he'd so lovingly given her to wear. "Whoa there, there's no reason to get upset like this!" he assured her, going right to the closet while she couldn't even manage to collect herself, and when he pulled out a different holiday sweater, one covered completely in bells that jingled as he held it, she knew that things were going to be okay, even if she'd already humiliated herself on accident.

He helped her get into the second sweater, after she'd fully changed everything else on her upper half, and once her hair was pulled out from underneath it he gave her a gentle kiss before telling her that he'd meet her back outside, and to take all the time she needed to collect herself. His words were appreciated, but all Maki wanted to do right then was grit her teeth and pretend like nothing had gone wrong, to show that she could handle the situation. It was a valiant effort, but she made it about as far as the bedroom door before deciding that she could use a little more time to herself before she rejoined the others.

When she did go back out to the living room, the scene was similar to when she'd left, except the once-screaming child was being cradled in her mother's arms, being rocked slowly and sucking on her pacifier intently, and Kaito was sitting in the spot Maki had been in before, holding onto her plate to keep it safe. They switched positions once she was there, and he handed her the food with a smile, letting her know he didn't mind her needing to sit there, and that he would do whatever he could to keep her happy. "Uh, right now that would mean asking Shuichi to get over here so we can eat that cake," she said, setting the plate down on top of her stomach because she could easily use it as a tray as she adjusted how she was sitting. "Not to sound desperate or anything, but there's nothing I want more than to get a slice or two of it."

"Who would've thought we'd ever see the day where Maki actually begs us for food," Kaede remarked, trying to keep her voice soft as to not disrupt the child in her arms; the glare she got in return for it felt well-deserved, even to herself. "I don't think we can really rush Shuichi getting here, though. He said he'd be done as soon as he could, but he went over there super early this morning and who knows when he'll get here."

"He should just put work aside for this, it's way more important." Pausing to take a few bites of her food, and savoring each one even though it wasn't really what she wanted, Maki continued, "It's kinda like Christmas in February, I guess. Except no one gets gifts except for me, and we're wearing ugly sweaters because we can." She snorted in laughter, causing the bells on her sweater to jingle, nearly knocking her plate over in the process, and she had to quickly stop herself from finding it more hilarious than it really was.

Keeping things held together was hard, but she was going to do it, her clear emotional instability be damned. Of course, it would have been easier if she was given what she wanted when she wanted it, but she wasn't going to keep arguing with the two when she knew what their position on the matter was. She had to eat her food in peace, and then not get overwhelmed by the smell of cake in the house when it was gone, pushing her plate aside and looking at Kaede with expectant eyes when she was done. "Uh, is there something you want from me?" her friend asked, still speaking quietly to keep Nori from screaming again. "Or are you just looking at me for no reason?"

"Could I…hold her?" The question felt strange for Maki to ask, but she needed something to keep her distracted from what she really wanted and having a child keeping her more or less stuck in her seat would do the trick. "It's been a long time since I held a kid her specific size and I'd probably need the practice, you know?"

"I mean, if you want to hold her for a bit, she might get fussy but she'll get over it." Nuzzling her nose to the baby's head, Kaede waited a few moments to make sure Maki was being serious before she scooted towards her, setting the child down in the waiting arms. True to what she'd said, the moment she pulled away Nori began to whimper, her pacifier dropping out of her mouth and tumbling onto the couch beside them. "Shh, baby, it's okay, that's your auntie Maki, she's not gonna hurt you, I promise."

"Damn, she looks so much like you, doesn't she?" Trying to ignore that the baby was crying, Maki was instead looking at the positives of the situation, which were that she was getting to see the little girl for the first time in a month or so, mostly out of her own choice. "It's like every time I get to see her, she's grown to look more like you and less like Shuichi, which is probably for the best. Wouldn't want a child going through life looking like him."

Kaede held back a laugh by biting her tongue, while Maki bounced the child a bit to try and calm her down, a tactic that worked if only slightly. "Here, let me give her something to focus on, that way she'll calm down," she said, reaching down to the bag at her feet, pulling out a bottle that she handed over right away. The second the bottle touched Nori's lip she calmed down, suckling on that rather than crying. Once the appropriate hands were holding it (since the child wasn't always reliable when it came to feeding herself), Kaede gave a happy sigh and looked at her friend. "Now that I can talk over her, you better hope that you luck out the same way, or else you're going to be raising a replica of Kaito, and I don't know who'll suffer worse for that: you, or her."

"She's already got her father's energy, I'm sure she'll look just like him just to spite me for being the one who did everything for her to this point." Giving a grumble under her breath about how much she wished that wouldn't happen, Maki found herself becoming transfixed by watching Nori's once-wide eyes slowly start to flutter closed. Of all of the traits that the girl had seemingly inherited from her mother, one she hadn't gotten was the shape of her eyes, the long lashes that matched her father's, and even though Maki had already made the dig at Shuichi about his looks, it was definitely a good thing that they shared similar eyes. Sure, Kaede had lovely eyes, but there was something about seeing the softness of Shuichi's eyes on someone else's face that just felt right.

The two women sat there talking for a while, as the girl ate and eventually fell asleep in Maki's arms, but even that did not stop them from continuing their conversation. At one point Kaito came in, saw that his wife was busy holding a sleeping baby, and decided to duck out once more without interrupting her, only to come back a minute or so later to sit down on the floor, looking up at her with a smile on his face. Everything felt so peaceful that it seemed as if nothing could go wrong—until the front door came open just a crack, alerting the three adults to the fact that something was about to happen. Warily, Kaito was getting to his feet, holding a hand out to wordlessly tell both women not to worry about a thing, but before he was fully standing the door was pushed open, slamming against the wall and causing everyone to either gasp in surprise at the sound, or start screaming because they'd been woken up from their sleep.

"What a lame excuse for a party you've got going on here!" Miu's brash voice shouted over the din she'd created, as she came into the house wrapped up in a coat that she held tightly to herself with one hand. "Looks like you need someone stunning and smart to liven things up, and of course you've got the beautifully intelligent woman genius here to fill that role!"'

"Who invited her?" Maki asked, looking between Kaede and Kaito for an answer, but neither of them really wanted to answer. "Seriously, I'm pretty sure that one of you did it, and when I find out which of you it was I'm going to murder you."

"Call it a self-invitation, I knew what you were missing and I wasn't gonna deny you it." Flashing a pointed grin in Maki's direction, Miu at least had the decency to wait until there wasn't a child in the birthday woman's arms before she came towards her, actively pushing Kaito out of the way to do so. "You can just go ahead and thank me now, since asking you to bow down to my greatness isn't gonna happen."

Although she was thankful that neither of the people she'd been spending the day with so far had invited this disaster into her home, Maki still didn't believe that Miu had gotten herself over there on her own. "Nope, there's not going to be any thanking. I didn't need you to walk in here like you're wanted and start talking down to me. Not on _my_ birthday."

"Ouch, like I'm actually here because I give any fucks about you as a person." Miu played with the jacket she was still holding tight to herself, slightly fanning it open and closed but not exposing anything underneath it. "It's always a treat to walk in on someone who's not expecting it, especially when she's neutered in terms of what kind of shit she can try on me."

"I'll make you regret speaking to me like that," Maki snapped, getting Miu to shrink back and become somewhat flustered. "Just because I shouldn't kick your ass into next week doesn't mean I can't do it. Don't try me."

"And this is why I was going to refuse to give you the ride over here." Entering the house and closing the door politely behind himself, Shuichi seemed to sound apologetic for unleashing the disaster known as Miu on everyone, but he backed up what she had claimed almost immediately with: "You promised you'd be in and out and on your way home if you came, pretty sure you also said you wouldn't try fighting Maki while you were here."

"I-I wasn't fighting her," Miu stammered, inching back even further, "I was just making loud threats that I knew she wouldn't bite on. Yeah, that's what I was doing! I'm too smart to willingly get beat to a bloody, but gorgeous, pulp!"

By that point Kaede, surprised to see that Shuichi's appearance had been preceded by Miu's, stood up with Nori back in her arms, and walked the crying girl over to her father in hopes that he'd be able to calm her down quickly. "I thought we made it clear Miu wasn't supposed to know about this party, for everyone's sake," she said, waiting until he'd taken his work jacket off to reveal his dark holiday sweater underneath it before she handed the child over to him. "Did someone tell her without telling us?"

"Knowing Miu, she must've forced it out of someone. Not too surprising, but…she's wearing the appropriate costume and she said she wouldn't be here long." He sounded overwhelmed by something, but when he was holding his daughter he seemed to relax, if only slightly. "I never should've agreed to bring her without asking someone here if it was okay. I don't know why I thought to do it, maybe it was because she was doing community service work, and there's no way she could be planning something bad after that, right?"

"It's okay, I think you're right and Miu's got to be here for some good reason. She wouldn't cause a scene here, I really don't think she would." Kaede leaned in to give Shuichi a quick kiss but she was interrupted by the piercing scream that came from the other side of the room, followed immediately by a loud smacking sound.

Stunned at whatever had just happened, the couple looked to see Miu hitting the ground, rubbing at her face with a blissful expression, her jacket having fallen to the floor and her sweater exposed for everyone to see. Except, as it could be assumed the problem was, her sweater was that in name only, and definitely not in functionality. "Why the _fuck_ would you wear that in my house?" Maki coldly asked, shaking out her hand after she'd delivered the smack that everyone had heard, her fingers tingling and her whole body trembling from the adrenaline of the whole ordeal. "That's not even close to appropriate, you dumb bitch, what would possess you to think that's remotely okay?"

"God, keep talking down to me like that, you're getting me all sorts of turned on," Miu replied, her one hand still rubbing her face while the other reached for her exposed chest, which was only made "decent" by the presence of pompoms covering everything that needed covering. "I could seriously get off right now to you treating me like this."

"You better rethink that." Getting herself to standing so that she could stare down at Miu and make herself as intimidating as possible, Maki got as close as hovering above her before Kaito, as gently as he could, pushed her back towards the couch, making her fall rather awkwardly backwards with just a little force. "Hey! What gives there? I was going to teach her a lesson for—"

"I think I'll handle this one, Maki Roll," he said, cutting her off and making her give an angered _hmph_ in dismay. "The last thing I need is for her to try doing something nasty to ya right now, or, uh, nastier than what she already did." He looked at Maki with a gentle expression and she gave up her anger, accepting that he was doing what was best for the situation, and she adjusted how she was sitting, expecting to have a show to watch.

There wasn't much in the way of conflict from there, Miu having realized what kind of hornet's nest she'd stuck her hand in and knowing that Kaito _was_ going to protect everyone he loved from her twisted behavior. Before Kaito could even say anything to her she was grabbing her jacket and putting it on with shaky arms, spitting out apologies like they were the only words she knew. "I-I didn't realize my joke wouldn't go over so well, okay? I thought maybe you'd all find it fuckin' hilarious for me to walk in with my tits out, but I guess you're different people now, huh? I'm so sorry for ruining your day or whatever, I'll get out of here so you can all admire some cow tits instead, geez."

"Stop digging your hole deeper and just get out of my house. Now."

"I'm going, I'm going!" Dragging herself to her feet, after spending a few seconds on her knees almost groveling at Maki's feet, Miu looked around at all of the angered and disappointed expressions being shown to her, flipped her hair over her shoulder, and made her way towards the door, opening it and slamming it closed to let her exit go the same way her entrance had.

Now with a loudly-screaming child in his arms, due to the noise that Miu slamming the door had created, Shuichi turned his attention away from the disaster scene and on to the reddened face of the girl he was holding. "If I'd known she'd pull that sort of stunt, I would've told her that she wasn't allowed to come, sorry about that." He sounded genuinely apologetic for what had happened, even if it seemed he was talking more to the baby than to anyone else. "You think that someone's going to behave after doing community service work, and they betray you."

"Hey, no hard feelings there, Shuichi! We all know you didn't mean any harm by what you did!" Laughing things off as if nothing bad had really happened (which, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't too terrible), Kaito went to go give his friend a comforting pat on the shoulder, but Nori's screaming kept him away. Instead, he glanced towards the door to the kitchen and an idea struck him. "Why don't you calm her down, and while you do that, I'm gonna finally get around to what I know a certain birthday girl's been waiting for."

It took a full five seconds for Maki to get what he was referring to, and she wasn't going to stop him from going and getting her the cake she wanted. If it were any other situation she would've insisted on doing it herself, but she knew there was limited time to milk her physical condition for all it was worth. "Oh, please go quickly," she begged him, sounding completely fake and making Kaede suppress a giggle at the sound. "I'm pretty sure if you don't bring me something to eat right now, I might just…" She let herself trail off as her thought was interrupted by the sound of her sweater jingling, even though she nor anyone else was touching it.

"I think someone else wants cake just as much as her mom does," Kaede managed to say, before bursting into full giggles, nearly knocking into Shuichi as he held their still-crying child in his attempt to calm her. He wasn't as amused by what was going on, but he'd also missed everything that had happened before his and Miu's entrance into the house, so it was understandable that the moment fell flat for him.

Maki closed her eyes, feeling another movement that resulted in more bells ringing. "And maybe if she gets her cake, she'll decide that she'll want more a year from now and that can be the end of this," she said, before quickly retracting her statement. "Except she better not decide that, I've had enough excitement today to not need that happening as well."

Things were going to work out how they were meant to, whether it would be a case of cake-induced labor or not (which it wasn't, much to Maki's genuine delight), and whenever that time came it would be a matter of losing more sleep, losing a lot of money to bets, and gaining a child who enjoyed both of her parents and the sound of bells.


End file.
